Lucas Oil teammate Hector Arana made it to the quarterfinals but lost ground to points leader and eventual race runner-up, Andrew Hines.
Arana and the Lucas Oil Buell beat Redell Harris in the first round with a pass of 6.965 seconds at 187.29 mph to Harris’ 7.017 at 186.33 mph.
In the second round, Arana fell to Jim Underdahl, who got a big jump at the line and cruised to a 6.990 at 190.40 mph to Arana’s 6.997 at 189.97 mph.
“Overall it was a good day,” Arana said. “We qualified, not as good as we wanted to but we did find some problems with the motorcycle and now that we can see what the other bikes can run. We have to go home, focus, and find some horsepower so we can have a chance at that title.”
Arana slipped to third in the Pro Stock Motorcycle standings and is 17 points out of second and 105 points behind Andrew Hines, who got a 20-point bonus for getting a national record during the weekend.
“I’m not giving up yet,” Arana said. “This is the only first race of the Countdown so I’m going to work hard and do the best that I can.